Friday, August 29, 2008

Last week I received a note from one of the ladies on the HGTV Board ( HGTV Quilting Forum) asking me if I had any yellow laces. Now... yellow has never been one of my favorite colors so I could answer her honestly with a "no" but. that I would dye up some for her. While dying the laces yellow, I decided to try and throw in another color that I have never liked - Orange. Ok... so after working with these two colors for a couple hours I'm finding ...hmmmm - they actually can be sorta pretty. By the time I finished dying a huge batch of lace I was saying - "I think I like yellow and orange." Guess I'm seeing them in a whole new light and will slowly incorporate them into various projects now. Libby (SCLady), thanks for pushing me into a new direction.

Didn't take me long to try out a few pieces of yellow lace. I am currently in a CQ RR (Round Robin) with a group of ladies from a CQ Site on Yahoo. One of the first blocks I received to work on happened to be .... Yellow in color. Immediately I had to try out a couple of my new pretties. This block belongs to Phyllis - sure hope she likes what I've created. A couple days ago I received a comment about my dyed laces from Denise of Needlework.craftgossip If you haven't checked out this site it is a must - be prepared to grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable as you will spend hours going through all the great projects, articles and wonderful pictures!

The next morning I woke up to an email box full of wonderful notes from perfect strangers on how pretty they thought my laces were. I was so excited and so thrilled to see that Denise had written a little article on her site about me and my passion. Nicki-Lees-hand-dyed-lace . Thank you Denise!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

How many of you remember that song "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"? That song has been playing over and over in my head for the past week. I think it's because it reminds me of what I was doing last week on vacation - sitting on the dock next to Great East Lake in Acton, Maine. For two beautiful sunny days I set up all my dyes and laces on the dock and just painted lace. I loved mixing colors, letting the colors bleed into each other and at times, wiping up the spilt dyes with a piece of lace just to see how they would come out. I think I must have dyed over 500 new pieces - maybe instead of selling them I should just make one huge piece work of art? LOL!

Hmmm - now that could be a plan. I have been seriously thinking of making an all black CQ square - say maybe 24x24 in all textures of fabrics - silks,. satins, brocades, velvets and just adding laces - all in blues, turquoise, aquas. I bet is would look stunning - guess I won't know until I try uh?

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my latest pretties with you - they are all for sale and more can be seen in my Flicker album Summer Laces If you are interested please contact me at mailto:bnickilee@aol.com/

Monday, August 18, 2008

Oh my goshness! Every once in a while someone comes along and surprises you with something incredible! I just received the most beautiful Dotee Doll from my dear friend Karen (KMouse) from the HGTV board. Over the past year, Karen and I have become very close and have realized that we are so much alike in so many ways - sharing lots of the same life stories. During this time we've discussed everything from husbands, children and just life in general. Now I know she knows (like everyone else does) that my favorite color is blue. Little did I know that somewhere along the road of our friendship she remembered my favorite movie and book is "Memoirs of a Geisha". Karen just made me the most precious gift - a gorgeous Geisha Dotee Doll all dressed in blue and beads. I just love her and have her hanging on my CQ wall next to a beautiful CQ heart she made me months ago. Thank you Karen - she will be treasured forever...just like our friendship.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

I'm actually suppose to be busy packing for our upcoming vacation to Maine but find myself playing with all my CQ goodies. Figured I'm going to need something to keep me busy if it rains and we are stuck in the cabin........ oh poor me - to be stuck inside with all my CQ treasure and nothing to do! I figure I might as well get my "sewing suitcase" packed first. Last week I made 11 CQ blocks for various swaps and have decided to take these four with me to work on. Lets, see... beads - check, buttons-check, laces -check, threads - check ... that should take care of at least one suitcase! I'm still trying to decide whether or not to bring up my sewing machine..... figure if I don't, then it won't tempt me to go off in another direction - without it I can focus on doing nothing but CQ. Hopefully by the time I get back (9 days) I will have these naked blocks done and ready to start on the next 4.